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For the seventh year, Bethel is on Forbes.com's top colleges list

NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – When it comes to return on investment (ROI), Bethel College is right up there with the big players in Kansas higher education.

Just four Kansas schools made the seventh annual Forbes.com analysis of the 650 (a little less than 10 percent of the total) top U.S. colleges and universities.

Bethel is the only private, liberal arts college in Kansas to be listed and ranks ahead of Wichita State University – behind the University of Kansas and Kansas State University – in a survey based on “output” over “input.”

“We’re not that interested in what gets a student into college,” writes Caroline Howard of Forbes.com. “Our sights are set directly on ROI: What are students getting out of college. We use National Center for Education Statistics data (nces.ed.gov) and PayScale (www.payscale.com) as sources, among others.”

“In an age when higher education is coming under ever-increasing scrutiny over affordability and access, those of us at Bethel are gratified to once again be recognized by Forbes.com for our exemplary service to students and for the return we provide on their tuition dollars,” said Bethel President Perry D. White.

Forbes.com, with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP), rates 650 undergraduate programs out of 6,600 accredited U.S. colleges and universities “based on the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students and how much they achieve.”

The rankings are based on five general categories: student satisfaction, which includes professor evaluations and freshman-to-sophomore year retention rates; post-graduate success, which evaluates alumni pay and prominence; debt, which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates; four-year graduation rate; and nationally competitive awards, which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships such as Rhodes, Fulbright or National Science Foundation, or go on to earn a Ph.D.